Petroleum (Oil)

• Anywhere we find petroleum was an ocean hundreds of millions of years ago.
• Plants and animals died, were buried by sand and slowly pressed into oil and gas hydrocarbons.

• Giant machines drill through the rock layers above the petroleum, then pumps suck the petroleum out of the ground.

On Land Oil Wells

• Not all countries in the world are on top of an ancient ocean, so distribution of petroleum isn’t equal.
• Current top producers:
  • #1 – US
  • #2 – Saudi Arabia
  • #3 – Russia

• When giant holes are dug to extract coal, the entire ecosystem is disturbed.
• Filling the holes back in costs a lot of time and money, and mine companies often go bankrupt before completing the land restoration.

• Weak spots in miles long underground mine tunnels can collapse, trapping miners and causing sinkholes at the surface.

• While pipes are the most efficient way to move petroleum around, they can leak and spray into the environment.

• It requires millions of oil wells to pump all of the oil humans use and they aren’t exactly pretty.
• In petroleum rich Los Angeles, oil wells are creatively camouflaged so they don’t stick out.

• Petroleum accounts for 36% of all the energy consumed in the US.
• Grey sliver of pie chart

• The majority of petroleum is made into fuels like diesel and gasoline for transportation engines.

• US doesn’t use petroleum to generate electricity in large scale powerplants.
• Petroleum is primarily made into different fuels for small transport engines.

United States consumes the most petroleum in the world.

Mexico is the most reliant on petroleum with it accounting for over 40% of their energy.